Srihari Palangala
Class of 2006
 


 


Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
Growing up my parents taught me that I was responsible for my own destiny and future in all aspects of life. People around could help and occasionally guide – but at the end of the day, you are what you make yourself to be.
I am married to Kavya, who is the head of marketing at RapidValue Solutions. We have a son Agastya who is 7 years old. Over the past decade, my wife and son have added immensely satisfying dimensions to life. My wife has always encouraged me to reach higher with zest for life and our son has made every day of my life better than the previous.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
I have served as the Marketing chair for NASSCOM Product Conclave (NPC) over the past 2 years. NPC is NASSCOM’s flagship event in the technology products area, which brings together ~1500 participants (entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators, CXOs etc.) from across India and the globe.
I regularly engage and mentor start-up entrepreneurs; I provide guest sessions on marketing for startups, including at India Angel Network, NASSCOM and Indian Product Management workshops. My guest lecture slides from a recent workshop are available here.
On a personal front, I enjoy distance running – usually doing 10K runs every weekend. I have completed half-marathon at the Kaveri Trail run as well.
 
Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Pre-ISB: I completed my Masters in Computer Science from Arizona State University. Post that, I worked at OPNET Technologies leading consulting efforts on network/application performance across a wide spectrum of customer segments – including Service providers, US DoD/DISA, Enterprises, R&D organizations etc. I was based in the Washington DC area.
Post-ISB: Post graduation, I had a short stint at Microsoft, Hyderabad before moving to Bangalore to join VMLogix, a startup with products in the virtualization area – to run their product marketing. The company was subsequently acquired by Citrix. Around that time, I joined Adobe in India. I did various marketing roles at Adobe over 5+ years – including developer marketing across APAC and as the head of marketing for Adobe in India. Recently, I took up a role at Microsoft as a product marketing director for the SharePoint and Yammer business in India. I have captured my learnings from my stint at Adobe here, which might be relevant to others from ISB.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
ISB and the years after that have shown me the value of building people networks. Related to that, the year at the school and afterwards have shown me that effective teams can achieve better results. I have also learnt the value of accepting diverse viewpoints, embracing ambiguity and living with a healthy personal/professional balance.
It is critical that the ISB brand is valued, and that there is a certain high quality bar expected from ISB grads. It automatically sets the tone in several conversations.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
As a seasoned marketer in the technology products industry, I enjoy the fact that marketers today are the pivot in the business. As a marketer, you cut across business functions to drive growth and value for the organization by:
      - Constantly connecting with customers and telling the product story
      - Staying on top of market and competition movements
      - Always exploring new opportunities and avenues for profitable growth
I believe marketers today angle across the organization, constantly delivering long term and short term value.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
A typical day in my role involves (usually 1 or more of the following):
    - Marketing campaigns – their roll-out and monitoring/optimizing how they are performing
    - Connecting with sales and pre-sales to discuss how they are pursuing customer opportunities – and understanding what the friction points are towards business closure
    - Connecting and working with partners – to ensure they are aligned around business priorities and enthused about our business
    - Looking at customers who have purchased our software – ensuring that they are successful with our products and are delivering value from it
The challenge and opportunity is around the fact that I have a broad view across the spectrum – so a successful day would mean that you need to work cross-functionally and across various teams to drive business movement and value.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
Quite honestly, there has never been a more exciting time to be a marketer. Technology – including digital marketing, data and insights are making campaigns and efforts very targeted and marketing is fast approaching to becoming THE pivotal function in the organization – with powerful inside-out and outside-in views. This will be the decade of the marketer, and we should expect to see the CMO having a better pulse on the business numbers than the CFO.
From a market perspective, I have spent time looking at India as a market – and I do believe we are at a cusp where India will explode in terms of the digital & technology that will be consumed here (both by businesses and consumers alike).

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
I liked the rigor and the quality of education – including the course structure (tons of learning packed in short semesters, great learning content), case study breadth and Professors. It was a world class learning experience – which I have constantly emphasized to several people who have asked me in the years since.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
Couple the learning you have at ISB with the real world experience you will gather over the years post. Once you graduate, be open in certain areas as you learn and absorb, but be rigid in a few – including your principles.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
If it is useful for current students, am happy to take guest lectures on industry marketing innovations, trends and tips. I am also happy to mentor startups at WCED.


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